1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing solid articles of clay foam to be used in building and products obtained therefrom.
2. Description of Related Art
The need to lighten parts of buildings, such as main walls, curtain walls, partition walls and ceilings, and to give them the required insulating, deadening properties has brought to the manufacturing of hollow materials such as hollow clay tiles, hollow clay blocks, plaster board and the like that do not fully solve the problems.
Such parts of buildings may also be made of synthetic foam materials such as polystyrene, polyurethane, etc., combining light weight and good deadening, insulating properties. The problem of inflammability of such materials has been recently solved so that they can presently be used in building as panels, especially covering panels. However, the problem of their poor mechanical resistance to compressive stress has not been solved so far and their use as carrying structure is excluded.
In an attempt to foam materials inherently provided with mechanical strength, incombustibility, and easy mouldability such as clay, gases or substances developing gases have been put therein using raw clay as starting material.
However, such attempts have not provided satisfactory results so far both as far as the moulding of a homogeneously foamed mass and mouldability and mechanical strength thereof is concerned.